Introduction to Chinese Dialectology intends to give a comprehensive account of the studies on Chinese dialects tracing from the first Chinese dialect study of Yang Xiong's Fangyan "Dialect" to present works, covering mainly phonological and lexical features.

It investigates the dialect research from historical and theoretical linguistic perspectives. Topics include: the classification of Chinese dialects, dialect studies in different periods, the criteria for the dialect classification as proposed by different scholars, discussions on the Chinese dialectology from philological, descriptive, generative and computational quantifying approaches, and the contributions of Chinese dialectology to the general linguistic theories. The main text devotes to the description of the major phonological characteristics and distributions of the major dialects, supplemented by fourteen sketch dialect maps and over one hundred tables of dialect data for easier reading and comparisons. Each chapter is supported by exercises, which basically is in the form of contrastive and comparative linguistic analysis nature.

Contents

Preface Acknowledgements List of Maps and Figures

1 Background of Chinese Dialectology 1.1 Language, Dialect, and Subdialect 1.2 Pre-Modern Period of Dialectology 1.3 The Classification of Modern Chinese Dialects

3 Modern Period of Dialectology II 3.1 Dialect Studies in the United States 3.2 The Chinese Linguistics Project at Princeton University 3.3 The DOC Project at the University of California, Berkeley 3.4 Quantitative Approach of Dialect Study 3.5 Dialect Surveys in Shandong, Fujian and Taiwan 3.51 Shulin Dialect Survey 3.52 Shandong Dialect Survey 3.53 Dialect Surveys in Fujian and Taiwan 3.6 Computer Database of Chinese Dialects at the University of Hawaii 3.7 Comparative Chinese Dialectal Grammar Project at University of Washington 3.8 Tone Sandhi Patterns of Chinese Dialects 3.9 The Yuen Ren Society

4 Major Dialect Groups

4.1 The Mandarin and Jin Dialects 4.11 Subgrouping of the Mandarin Dialects 4.12 General Characteristics of the Mandarin Dialects 4.121 Initials of the Mandarin Dialects 4.122 Finals of the Mandarin Dialects 4.123 Tones of the Mandarin Dialects 4.124 Lexical Differences in the Mandarin Dialects

4.2 The Wu Dialects 4.21 Subgrouping of the Wu Dialects 4.22 Sounds of Suzhou Dialect 4.23 Initials of the Wu Dialects 4.24 Finals of the Wu Dialects 4.25 Tones of the Wu Dialects 4.26 Lexical Differences in the Wu Dialects

4.3 The Xiang Dialects 4.31 Subgrouping of the Xiang Dialects 4.32 Sounds of the Changsha and Shuangfeng Dialects 4.33 Initials of the Xiang Dialects 4.34 Finals of the Xiang Dialects 4.35 Tones of the Xiang Dialects 4.36 Lexical Differences in the Xiang Dialects